Psammocinia scopulus, Lee & Yoo & Kim, 2017

Lee, Sue Yeon, Yoo, Jung Sun & Kim, Seung Tae, 2017, New species in two genera, Psammocinia and Ircinia (Demospongiae: Dictyoceratida: Irciniidae), from Korea, Journal of Species Research 6, pp. 94-109 : 98-99

5. Psammocinia scopulus n. sp. ( Fig. 5)

Type specimen. Holotype (NIBRIV0000801024), Korea: Daejeong-eup, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do, Songaksan , 1 Oct 2014, Kim HS, by SCUBA, depth 25-30 m, deposited in the NIBR.

Description. Massive sponge like small rock, size up to 6 × 5 × 5.5 cm. Surface, smooth, and no distinct conules.

Sand crust with small sand particles appeared at surface, and larger sand particles near surface ( Fig. 5C). Oscules, 1 mm in diameter, rare. Texture, firm and compressible. Color in life, grey and dark brown on side part of sponge. Choanosome with many large sand particles, 200-400 μm in diameter, rarely have fibres.

Skeleton: Fibres appeared very rarely. Numerous large sand particles bound by strong collagens to each other. Bound sand and fibres form skeletal structure. Primary fibres fascicles, 200-400 μm in diameter, not clear. Short secondary fibres, 15-100 μm in diameter, bridged with large sand particles, 20-60 μm in diameter. Filaments, 3-7 μm in diameter, with terminal knobs, 9-11 μm in diameter.

Etymology. This species name scopulus is named after rock shape of sponge.

Remark. This new species is distinct from other psammocinian species in its two layered sand crust, a crust with small sand particles at surface and the other crust with large sand particles near surface. Primary fibres are not easy to see because large sand particles are connected with each other. Secondary fibres are very short bridge type.